Hausa people

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Hausa


Total population	30-35 million (Newman 2000, Schuh 2001)
Regions with significant populations	Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana
Language	Hausa
Religion	Sunni Islam

The Hausa are a Sahelian people chiefly located in the West African regions of northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger. There are also significant numbers found in northern regions of Benin, Ghana, Niger, Cameroon and in smaller communities scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route from West Africa, moving through Chad, and Sudan. Many Hausa have moved to large coastal cities in West Africa such as Lagos, Accra or Cotonou, as well as to countries such as Libya in search of jobs that pay cash wages. However, most Hausa remain in small villages, where they grow food crops and raise livestock on nearby lands. Hausa farmers time their activities according to seasonal changes in rainfall and temperature. They speak the Hausa language which belongs to the Chadic language group, a sub-group of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family .

1 Culture
2 Religion
3 History
4 See also

[edit] Culture

Kano is considered the center of Hausa trade and culture. In terms of cultural relations to other peoples of West Africa, the Hausa are culturally and historically close to the Fulani, Songhay, Mandé and Tuareg as well as other Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan groups further East in Chad and Sudan. Islamic Shari’a law is loosely the law of the land and is understood by any full time practitioner of Islam, known as a Malam.

Between 500 CE and 700 CE Hausa people, who had been slowly moving west from Nubia and mixing in with the local Northern and Central Nigerian population, established a number of strong states in what is now Northern and Central Nigeria and Eastern Niger. With the decline of the Nok and Sokoto, who had previously controlled Central and Northern Nigeria between 800 BCE and 200 CE, the Hausa were able to emerge as the new power in the region. Closely linked with the Kanuri people of Kanem-Bornu (Lake Chad), the Hausa aristocracy adopted Islam in the 11th century CE. By the 12th century CE the Hausa began to become one of Africa's major powers. The architecture of the Hausa is perhaps one of the least known but most beautiful architecture of the medieval age. Many of their early mosques and palaces are bright and colourful and often include intricate ingraving or elaborate symbolizes designed into the facade. By 1500 CE the Hausa utilized the Arabic script to write their own language. This script, called the ajami script was largely used for centuries. The Hausa compiled several written histories, the most popular being the Kano Chronicles.

In 1810 the Fulani, another Islamic African ethnic group that spanned across West Africa, invaded the Hausa states. Their cultural similarities however allowed for the Fulani to eventually become Hausasized. Many Fulani in the region do not distinguish themselves from the Hausa.

The Hausa remain in primary control over Niger and Northern Nigeria. Their impact in Nigeria is paramount to the state of the nation. They remain one of the largest and most historically grounded civilizations in West Africa.

[edit] Religion

Hausa have an ancient culture that had an extensive coverage area, and long ties to the Arabs and other Islamized peoples in West Africa, such as the Mandé, Fulani and even the Wolof of Senega, through extended long distance trade. Islam has been present in Hausaland since the 14th century but it was largely restricted to the region's rulers and their courts. Rural areas generally retained their animist beliefs and their urban leaders thus drew on both Islamic and African traditions to legitimise their rule. Muslim scholars of the early nineteenth century disapproved of the hybrid religion practised in royal courts, and a desire for reform was a major motive behind the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate.<ref>Robinson, David, Muslim Societies in African History (Cambridge, 2004), p141 </ref> It was after the formation of this state that Islam became firmly entrenched in rural areas. The Hausa people have been an important vector for the spread of Islam in West Africa through economic contact, diaspora trading communities, and jihads.

Maguzawa, the animist religion, was practiced extensively before Islam. In the more remote areas of Hausaland Maguzawa has remained fully intact, but as you get closer to more urban areas it almost totally disappears. It often includes the sacrifice of animals for personal ends, it is thought of as illegitimate to practice Maguzawa magic for harm. What remains in more populous areas is a “cult of spirit-possession” known as Bori (religion) which still holds the old religion's elements of animism and magic. The Bori classification of reality has countless spirits many named and with definite powers. While the Malamai condemn Bori rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs, the Muslim Hausa population live in peace with the Bori. Many Bori refer to themselves as Muslims and many Muslims disregard total orthodoxy to utilize Bori magic which they agree keeps bad spirits out of their homes. Bori and Islam actually compliment each other in Hausa communities because the Kadiriya sect of Islam has elements of animism such as spirts called ‘jinn’ and some of the charms used Malamai are considered magic elements. As one can surmise Islam is not practiced strictly according to Koranic scriptures, it is therefore not an orthopraxy. Instead Islamic law comes to be Hausa law through an Islamic practice called ‘’ijma’ which means consensus. When a community agrees on certain rituals to Allah or the nature of God it is basically law. Some beliefs are even antithetical to Koranic dogmas, like miracles attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and belief in saints. Koranic practices that have persisted amongst the Hausa are the Hajj, and praying five times a day in the direction of Mecca. Other rituals related to Islam but not Koranic include a recent North African tradition of wearing a turban and gown and the drinking of ink from slates that had scripture written on them. During Muhammadan festivals, like New year and the birth of the Prophet people greet each other with gifts.